The present invention relates to a transfer wheel for transferring products along a wrapping line.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a transfer wheel for transferring products, of the type comprising a central body having a number of axially through, peripheral seats, and rotating in steps about an axis of rotation to feed the peripheral seats in a given direction and through a loading station and an unloading station; a first transfer assembly located at said loading station and for feeding said products to the relative peripheral seats; and a second transfer assembly located at the unloading station and for expelling said products axially from the relative peripheral seats, and feeding the products through a wrapping assembly.
The present invention is particularly advantageous for use on machines for wrapping sweets and similar, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
On machines for wrapping sweets and similar, a random stream of sweets is fed to a vertical-axis ordering plate, which has an outer ring with an orderly succession of through seats, each for receiving a respective sweet. Once arranged in orderly manner along the ring, the sweets are transferred to a single-sweet wrapping line by a vertical-axis transfer wheel having a number of peripheral through seats, which are fed successively to a first transfer stationxe2x80x94in this case, a loading stationxe2x80x94where each peripheral seat on the transfer wheel is positioned directly over a through seat on the ring to receive a sweet transferred to the transfer wheel by a bottom pusher moving vertically through the through seats on the ring, and a top counterpusher moving vertically through the peripheral seats on the transfer wheel. Two pushers of the type described above and located at a second transfer stationxe2x80x94in this case, an unloading stationxe2x80x94transfer the sweets from the transfer wheel to a further wrapped-sweet wheel via a sweet wrapping device.
On known transfer wheels of the type described above, the sweets are transferred during a stop of the transfer wheel, which cannot be started up again until the peripheral seats on the transfer wheel arrested at the transfer stations have been fully cleared by the pushers moving through them. This obviously results in considerable downtime, which, in the case considered, is further compounded, for example, by the pushers at the unloading station not only having to expel the sweets from the relative peripheral seats on the transfer wheel, but also having to feed the sweets through the wrapping assembly at travelling speeds which cannot exceed a given fairly low limit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer wheel designed to eliminate the aforementioned drawback.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer wheel designed to minimize loading and, above all, unloading downtime.
According to the present invention, there is provided a transfer wheel for transferring products along a wrapping line, the transfer wheel comprising a central body, which has a number of axially through, peripheral seats, and rotates in steps about an axis of rotation to feed said peripheral seats in a given direction and through a loading station and an unloading station; a first transfer assembly located at said loading station and for feeding said products to the relative said peripheral seats; and a second transfer assembly located at said unloading station and for expelling said products axially from the relative said peripheral seats, and feeding the products through a wrapping assembly; and being characterized in that each said peripheral seat is a gripper seat projecting radially outwards with respect to said central body, and comprising a first and a second jaw, of which the second jaw, located behind the first jaw in said direction, is a movable jaw movable between a closed position and an open position.
In a preferred embodiment of the transfer wheel according to the present invention, the second transfer assembly comprises a pusher having an actuating rod moving back and forth, parallel to said axis of rotation, through said unloading station and said wrapping assembly; said second jaw moving, in said open position, with said central body along a path of non-interference with said actuating rod.